Planning a Wedding

[Maxpower 0]

Hello,

My fiancee and I are working on the Fiancee Visa and want to start planning our wedding. Is it possible to plan a wedding in advance without knowing when we'll receive the visa?

Cheers!

[Zee Bee 61]

Never plan for anything solid until you have the visa. There are so many things that can go wrong/get delayed that you would be throwing money away. If you want to plan a wedding, make sure you can get vendors that are flexible or will give you your money back.

Or, you can have the wedding and then petition for a spousal visa. Then you can have the wedding when you want.

[LorriQ 0]

I having been planning - not booking anything until after the interview!

You can plan certain things around the actual ceremony - figure out clothing, food, music and other things. It is never to early to research and price things out.

Most venues can give you an idea of their busy seasons and what can be done on short notice.

Have fun with it and good luck!

[eric_and_teresa 10]

I agree, do not sign any contracts until the visa is in your hand, unless the providers allow you some flexibility with the dates. We did what LorriQ suggested, we bought some of the things ahead, like our rings, my dress, and other things, and then we just asked for quotations and waited until our process was done! It was a little more difficult some of the quotations were no longer good, but we already had the contacts for the providers we wanted to hire, so that saved us sometime.

[HappyDancer 7]

As far as wedding gowns, rings and the invitations, I am almost done with them. The dates won't be known until the visa is out.

[Hannah+Vito 0]

we have only just set our date and signed a contract for our venue, which april 9th, and we filled on the 1st of may 08. we waited till i had got my medical done, and was about to send back the packet three, and thats only because uk is ment to be quite quick (was expecting a dec or jan interview) and i had a limited time frame that my parents could attend. luckly for us we gaged (spelling?) it well because my interview is on the 13th jan. which gives me time to go out early and help prepare the wedding.

other than that we worked on preping our families explaining the not being able to commit to an exact date too early repeatedly and things that were not timeframe related like ideas to decorations and the rings and my dress.

[msu17 0]

We waited until we had the interview date to pay deposits. Once we got engaged I bought my dress etc. and also contacted vendors. We explained the situation and had our wedding on a Thursday, so not only did we get our date no problem (that could have been moved within a year and not lose the deposit) we also got discounts!

[sara..... 371]

we did that we planned our wedding three times bought the dress and everything only way i can wear that dress now is if it gets really warm this winter

[Rob&Dawn 1]

As others have advised make sure that if you book anything it can be moved without losing your deposit, just in case things take longer than anticipated.

Ahead of time I bought dress, rings etc and we know which vendors we will be using for cake & flowers.

[Ban Hammer 12,829]

Hello,

My fiancee and I are working on the Fiancee Visa and want to start planning our wedding. Is it possible to plan a wedding in advance without knowing when we'll receive the visa?

Cheers!

anything is possible but skiing thru a revolving door.

do the planning, but don't set a firm date.

[HappyDancer 7]

anything is possible but skiing thru a revolving door.

do the planning, but don't set a firm date.

ditto

[tallcoolone 102]

Go to Vegas and get married

You can get a marriage licenses 7 days per week, from 8am till 12 midnight. No waiting period either......

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

Honestly, we were both in the US together for years before our wedding, and we had set the date and gotten started planning 7 months in advance. We had a traditional religious wedding with 250 guests on a budget of under $6000.

But I am a procrastinator and we were busy preparing to move OUT of the US. Therefore, it wasn't until the final 2 1/2 months before the wedding that I did any true planning or putting down of deposits. Seriously. Not recommendable, but it was proof that you don't TOTALLY need so much time to plan a big beautiful wedding, as long as you make the most of the time you have.

So I say go ahead and pick colors, themes, get decorations, even get favors that don't need a date printed on them. Find the wedding dress, choose attire for the wedding party, decide on what kind of cake, try to find some options for catering, choose/design/word the invitation (just don't order it obviously), plan the ceremony, get ceremony stuff. Pick songs for the reception, do it all. That way, in the months after you get the visa, all you have to do is secure the locations (which might require more creativity if it's in a busy urban area, but can still be done) and vendors.

Planning a wedding involves so many goofy little choices that don't even relate to the wedding date itself, so I think it's a good idea to work through those goofy little choices even when you aren't able to set a date yet!

Good luck and congratulations!!